This week, Buel is going one step further. The former teacher is drafting resolutions for Wednesday's school board meeting asking the district to advocate for the state's suspension of new state test standards for three years.

Buel is referring to the Common Core State Standards, a group of K-12 standards adopted by 45 states nationwide.

The standards, meant to be more rigorous, have been trickling into schools over the past few years. During the next school year, Portland Public Schools will begin using the Smarter Balanced exam for state tests, which is aligned to the Common Core standards.

Buel, a former educator who won office with strong support from the Portland Association of Teachers, said his resolution will push to mitigate any disruption to learning from the implementation.

“There’s a lot of destructiveness in the Common Core, and I wanted to try to minimize that as much as I possibly can within the school district,” said Buel.

Buel's resolution, which also calls for more transparency about the funding that goes toward testing, comes as more school districts and communities become aware of the changes stemming from Common Core.

While the resolution is unlikely to pass exactly as written, Buel has said he wanted to draft a resolution that could actually garner support on the board.

In PPS, 26 schools so far have been schools piloting the Smarter Balanced tests, which will make its way into all schools next year.

Ruth Adkins, another board member, is also expected to present a resolution on the same topic, but she has not yet publicly released her draft of the proposal.

Buel said Portland Public Schools, like other districts, is investing too much time in tests that have not been proven to help students.

“The time and energy that we’re spending on Common Core, to do the testing, do professional development, and the time being spent in class on those standards are way beyond what we should be doing,” he said. “It takes away time from things that are more valuable.”

Within the board, there is sure to be dissent. Board member Pam Knowles said she believes the Common Core standards are a "fabulous idea."

"We need to provide a standard for our students to reach to prepare them for college and career," Knowles said.

Knowles has a decidedly different view than Buel, who has repeatedly railed against standardized testing during his time on the board.

"I believe that testing has a place and you have to assess how students are doing to be able to help them and learn how to adjust teaching," she said. "Testing is a necessity, as far I'm concerned."

But Knowles also said she understands the need to look at testing students too much. "We need to review how much we're testing and how we're testing and why we're testing," she said.

Tom Koehler, another school board member, said common sense will prevail about how the board will proceed with Common Core.

"It's a good thing to have a healthy debate, then decide what makes sense for our district," he said. "I feel that way about any federal or state, top-down approach."

Wednesday's school board study session starts at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at 501 North Dixon Street.